Chapter 55 (Previous Chapter 54): Black and Red Swatches: Five Minutes...
Accepting thieves? Accepting thieves?
I tried to do good but ended up doing something wrong again today!
Rewind the time to five minutes ago.
When Zhuge Tongzhi discovers Vermouth's character mark, the Junior Detective League's investigation is facing an unprecedented failure.
As the police orderly withdrew, the crowd below the Ferris wheel plaza gradually dispersed, and the three children mixed in among them did not get any clues from the passing tourists.
The warning recorded by Ida Ko was still playing on the loudspeakers along the roadside when another voice switched the channel, speaking in a more professional announcer's voice: "Please follow the signs and go away from the Ferris wheel as soon as possible."
"Upon hearing this announcement, please leave the scene immediately via the evacuation routes."
The crowd quickened their pace, while Ayumi Yoshida, Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya, and Genta Kojima, who had come against the flow, gathered together. The photos of the bomber on their phones had no effect.
"Ah, this is like looking for a needle in a haystack." Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya scratched his forehead, looked helplessly at his two dejected companions, and said with a wry smile, "We have no choice but to go back. The bomb disposal work here should be starting soon."
"I saw that the professor called me." Ayumi Yoshida held her phone, looking at the bright red missed call, and said with a troubled and guilty expression, "What should I do? Ai will definitely be very angry."
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it." Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya waved his hand slightly, trying to comfort his dejected companion. "But no matter what, it's too dangerous here now. We should leave."
"But we'll make up for it as long as we catch the bomber!" Kojima Genta clenched his fists tightly and said with high spirits, "Not only will we not get scolded, but we can also go eat eel rice together."
I don't think so... Upon hearing this, Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya and Ayumi Yoshida both had black lines appearing on their foreheads. Genta, all you really think about is eel rice.
Before his two friends could even offer any advice, the rather confident Genta Kojima grabbed a passing man, using his sturdy build to force the hurried man to stop. The man then raised his phone and asked, "Uncle, have you seen anyone like this around here?"
"Or perhaps it was a suspicious, masked person appearing near the Ferris wheel?"
The bearded man in his amusement park uniform was taken aback by the question. He glanced at the wanted poster on his phone and replied, "Little friend, I've never seen this person before."
The morale of the Junior Detectives plummeted, but then they heard the bearded man continue, "However, I did see a man dressed in all black, wearing a black beanie, walk by."
"It seems like they went there." He pointed towards the stands, where there was an entrance to the Ferris wheel. "And they were carrying a big violin case; they looked intimidating."
"Hey, really!" The Junior Detective Club, who had been planning to give up, suddenly became excited. After whispering among themselves for a while, they quickly ran towards the Ferris wheel viewing area.
"But maybe they're experts. Tourists are all evacuating now." The bearded man, left behind by the three children, pointed in a direction, muttered something in confusion, then turned back and squatted down, wanting to ask the three seemingly unattended children, "Where...are your parents?"
"Huh? Where did they go?" The bewildered middle-aged man stood there for a moment. Soon, police officers who were clearing the area came over and urged him to leave. He obediently walked away, saying, "Uh, okay, but I just saw three children, you..."
The kind-hearted bearded man walked towards the exit of the venue, while the Junior Detectives had already quickly climbed the Z-shaped passageway in front of the Ferris wheel grandstand and jogged to the area where passengers boarded and alighted.
After regaining their footing, they headed straight for the passageway at the end of the disembarkation point, but the flow of people getting off the ground carriage blocked their way. The three children stood anxiously at the starting point of the upward carriage, tiptoeing and trying to squeeze through.
However, the giant Ferris wheel's cabins already carry a large number of passengers at a time, and the adults, who are quite tall compared to elementary school students, are squeezed into the narrow stands, which conveniently diverts the attention of the police officers on the other side.
Zhuge Tongzhi gripped the railing with one hand, his eyes fixed on the two women who were starting to make physical contact not far away. The call he made to Conan finally went through.
Conan's voice rang out from the noisy background. The boy, who had been pushed off course by the crowd rushing to leave, was now turning back. He took off his glasses, which had been knocked askew several times, and raised his voice at the detective badge, "What's wrong? I'm looking for Ayumi and the others?"
"Ayumi?" Zhuge Tongzhi, whose attention was focused on Vermouth, was taken aback when he heard this. He then noticed that the three small green dots that were originally surrounding Curaçao had disappeared, and Ai Haibara's green dot was diagonally approaching the Ferris wheel, getting closer and closer to Vermouth.
“Let me take a look, but Detective, you have to deal with the other person first.” She glanced at the tourists who were hurriedly getting off the bus next to her, then turned her gaze to the increasingly sparse crowd below, squinting to carefully distinguish whether there were any green dots, and said, “Vermouth is here, right next to that silver-haired big sister.”
"At your nine o'clock position, under that big tree with colorful flags, Haibara is very close to them." Zhuge Tongzhi synchronized the location, grabbed the railing with both hands and leaned forward, then glanced down at the crowd again, but still couldn't see the figures marked earlier.
Strange, did they go back?
Not understanding why the Junior Detective Club kept returning and leaving, Zhuge Tongzhi had a bad feeling, but the countdown in the prompt box only had about two minutes left, so she could only temporarily suppress her questions and jump off the railing, looking up at the carriage with '36' marked on the bottom of the side, which was hanging lower and lower.
After confirming the handover procedures with Matsuda Jinpei, Hagiwara Kenji and his deputy gave their childhood friend a victory sign, under the watchful eyes of their childhood friend, and then walked cleanly down the Z-shaped passageway.
After watching Kenji Hagiwara stride past the first corner, Jinpei Matsuda turned his gaze to the black-haired girl beside him, who was staring intently at the target carriage. He picked her up and handed her to his assistant, saying, "You too, get off here obediently."
"I can help! I can defuse bombs!" Zhuge Tongzhi watched as the tourists in carriage 34 filed out of the carriage. Knowing that there was definitely not enough time to persuade Matsuda Jinpei, he immediately changed his mind and said, "Okay, put me down and I'll leave now."
"Hold her tight." But Matsuda Jinpei had witnessed her agility before. The curly-haired officer picked up his black professional toolbox, slung it over his shoulder, pointed at the struggling girl to the bewildered team members, and ordered, "You take her downstairs and get ready to meet her with Hagi."
"Hey! Officer Matsuda!" The team member instinctively hugged the struggling little girl in his arms, choosing to absolutely obey his superior's orders.
At the same time, the blue and white navigation box that had been quietly flashing in the void now displayed red text:
Please note the boarding time: 01:12:67
"I can walk by myself!" Zhuge Tongzhi panicked as he watched the tourists in carriage 35 begin to leave. He grabbed the arms that were holding him and pulled himself up like a radish, kicking his legs and shouting, "Put me down!"
"Hold on tight, Maeda." Matsuda Jinpei, carrying a toolbox, bent down and helped an elderly man with mobility issues out of the carriage, handing him over to his family members who were standing by waiting.
The curly-haired officer turned around, reached out and flicked the girl's forehead, which was flushed from the effort, and chuckled in a low, magnetic voice, "No bomb can stump me, don't worry."
"I will definitely come down safely with the clues."
Hey! Don't make any promises you can't keep!
At this moment, the door of carriage number 35 was already fully opened, while the automatic door of carriage number 36 began to slide open.
Matsuda Jinpei tightened the strap of his backpack and looked at the slowly approaching carriage number 36.
Seeing that carriage 35 was about to be empty, Zhuge Tongzhi, in his child form, struggled a couple of times in the arms of an adult. After confirming that he couldn't pull himself out no matter how hard he tried, he decisively took out his detective badge.
The girl raised her fist high, placed the badge in her palm face down, and slammed it down on Officer Maeda's elbow joint, precisely hitting the nerve in that area.
"Ah! Ouch!" Officer Maeda's arm was suddenly struck by an extreme tingling and numbness. Half of his arm went numb instantly and trembled involuntarily, losing its original strength. Zhuge Tongzhi silently apologized and kicked the person behind him without hesitation.
…
On the zigzag descending staircase.
As Hagiwara Kenji walked down the second corner, he abruptly stopped, turned around to look at his deputy following behind him, and reached out to the teammate carrying the toolbox, asking quite naturally, "Hey, Ichikawa-chan, did you memorize the support procedures from earlier?"
"Ah? Yes, Commander Hagiwara." The deputy, who had suddenly stopped, hesitated for a moment before instinctively handing the toolbox on his shoulder to the officer who had reached out his hand. "You want this?"
"Well." Kenji Hagiwara took the tool bag, slung it over his shoulder, and with a quick pull, adjusted the shoulder strap to its tightest position. He turned to his assistant with his usual smile. "Let's talk about it when I get down."
"Wait, wait!" The deputy's bewildered expression suddenly changed. He looked at Hagiwara Kenji with horror as he casually pulled him onto the railing. He took two steps closer, hesitant to touch his superior who was in a dangerous position. "Wait a minute, Officer Hagiwara!"
But Kenji Hagiwara didn't turn around and grabbed the edge of the upper passage with one hand. His impressive height allowed him to easily jump up and grab the stair railing with a single reach, quickly closing the distance to the stands in just a few movements.
The half-open door of carriage 36 came into his deep purple eyes. His childhood friend, who was standing with his back to him, was holding a pair of sunglasses he had taken off in one hand and looking at the Ferris wheel carriage with his head turned to the side.
The black-haired girl next to her hit the arm that was hugging her, and landed steadily on the ground from the embrace that had been forced to let go. The moment she landed, she also turned her head to look at carriage number 36.
Kenji Hagiwara stretched out his long arms, revealing smooth and powerful muscle lines from his shirt that had slipped down with gravity. He easily pulled himself up onto the railing of the stands, and with a few quick steps, he crouched on the railing handrail behind everyone like a cat.
His gaze lingered briefly on carriage number 36, whose door was just opening, before finally shifting to the two people in front of him.
…
As carriage number 35 passed by, the Junior Detective League, who were on the side of the disembarkation point, were unsure which carriage was passing by and were wondering how to squeeze through the crowd to the other end of the passage.
"Why don't we go tell the police officers?" Ayumi Yoshida looked at the dwindling crowd below and felt a strong urge to go home. She exchanged a worried glance with Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya.
"I can't worry about anything else now, it's all for the eel rice!" Genta Kojima shouted, taking the lead and sprinting through the temporarily stilled wall of people, stretching out his hands to try and push his way out. "Excuse me!"
But when he rushed over, several tourists who were helping the elderly man back into his wheelchair were all backing away to make room for him. The sturdy little fat man was immediately pushed backward and stumbled backward with his feet in disarray.
It should be noted that the carriages are not completely sealed off from the stands, and there is a bare edge without any barriers between the two carriages. If one loses their footing, they will fall from the platform, which is more than ten meters high.
"Genta!" Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya and Ayumi Yoshida immediately reached out their arms in a panic to support Genta Kojima, who was falling toward the edge of the stands.
Two children of normal weight reached out and managed to change the direction in which their companions fell, but the force of Kojima Genta's backward fall also caused the two of them to fall backward involuntarily.
After taking a few steps back, the three children tripped over the gap between carriage 35 and the stands, falling backwards into the half-closed carriage with a cry of pain: "Ouch!"
who?
Freed from the police officer's grip, Zhuge Tongzhi, now on the ground, twitched his ears and looked up at the sound. He saw that the door to carriage 36 had slid open wide enough for a person to enter, while the countdown timer for Ode flashed rapidly in the air.
"You are about to miss your bus stop: 00:25:78"
At the same time, Matsuda Jinpei, carrying a black tool bag, took a step forward.
Zhuge Tongzhi got up from the ground and rushed towards carriage number 36.
But the next second, the scene before her eyes spun around her, the little tuft on her forehead scattered during the struggle, and her bangs, which had grown much longer, restricted her vision. Before she could see what was happening, she bumped into a warm embrace.
Zhuge Tongzhi, who was standing with his feet dangling, raised his hand to smooth the stray hairs in front of his eyes. Before he could figure out why he was in mid-air, he saw Matsuda Jinpei, who was carrying a tool bag, being thrown to the ground with a heavy thud.
At the same moment, carriage number 36 shook, and the person who stepped inside forcibly closed the sliding door. He then exhaled, squatted down, and began to check the electrical system under the seats.
"Hagi? What are you doing!" Matsuda Jinpei's angry voice rang in my ears.
"You have missed your boarding time. We are rescheduling your route."
It was Kenji Hagiwara who had clearly left.
Damn it, I thought he really left obediently.
"The train schedule has been redesigned. Please board carriage 37."
The blue and white notification box refreshed the guidance, pointing the arrow to carriage 37 just before the boarding point, and a new countdown began to tick.
Zhuge Tongzhi, who had been shoved back into Officer Maeda's arms, acted decisively, using the same move with wide, sweeping motions to strike Officer Maeda, who was caught off guard, once again.
The black-haired girl landed gracefully amidst the man's cries of pain, while Ai Haibara's shout and a sharp crash reached her ears at the same time. Only then did she notice three familiar little green dots gathered in the now-raised carriage number 35.
Let's not even talk about Kenji Hagiwara, but when did the three of you show up here?!
Without further delay, Zhuge Tongzhi pushed himself up with his hands and rushed into carriage number 37. He jumped onto a seat on one side without stopping and pressed the emergency door opening button in the swaying carriage.
1, 2, 3
After pressing and holding for three seconds, the car door, which was slowly closing, jammed shut. Zhuge Tongzhi tightened his bag strap and was about to grab the top edge of the door frame to climb up when the sudden lurch of the car shook him back a few steps and he was pressed against the wall.
A curly-haired head popped into carriage number 37. When the dark-faced man looked up at him, Zhuge Tongzhi's breath hitched slightly, and he gripped the glass wall behind him tightly.
"I...I'm here to rescue Ayumi and the others!" The girl swallowed hard, pointed towards carriage 36, and explained, "They're in carriage 35."
"Save?" Matsuda Jinpei tossed his toolbox onto the stands, his dark eyes fixed on carriage 36 where Hagiwara Kenji was, and repeated, with an ambiguous meaning, "Save."
"I don't know why, but you and Hagi have always been convinced that the bomb will explode." Matsuda Jinpei turned to look at the girl whose eyes were darting around, then reached out and grabbed the top of the carriage to pull himself up. His voice was low: "We'll talk about it later. You stay here."
The curly-haired man climbed onto the upper edge of the carriage, lowered his center of gravity to steady himself, and observed the slowly tilting steel frame structure around him. He quickly determined a route that could lead to carriage number 36.
The angle keeps changing; you only have one chance.
Matsuda Jinpei slowly exhaled, bent his knees to gather strength, and kicked off the roof of the train. He grabbed the main support beam connecting the two carriages and pulled himself up. He stepped on the steel pillars connecting the inner and outer discs, climbed up a few times, and then squatted down to adjust his constantly tilting center of gravity.
The gale tore at his open clothes. The moment the distance between the two carriages narrowed to the limit, he suddenly grabbed the column that had been raised to a higher position and swung himself high into the air. When he was closest to the column, he let go of one hand and barely managed to grab the edge of the ventilation window of carriage number 36 for leverage. His knee slammed heavily onto the roof of the carriage.
They've arrived. Matsuda Jinpei wiped the cold sweat that had involuntarily seeped from his forehead.
At the same moment he regained his footing, a silver figure swept past like a whirlwind, the powerful force of high heels hitting the roof of the car causing the entire carriage to shake.
Just as Matsuda Jinpei was about to break down the door, he pressed down on the roof of the car beneath him to steady himself. He looked up and watched as the silver figure, using an unscientific leverage method, streaked through the steel frame like a streak of light and then rushed into carriage number 35 amidst the sound of shattering glass.
It's that woman with amnesia from earlier.
"Weren't people evacuated? Why are there so many people in and around carriage 36?" Matsuda Jinpei, who had raised his hand to shield himself from a shower of broken glass, paused for a moment, then grabbed the edge of the carriage with both hands and, like Curaçao, forcefully kicked open the glass door.
Inside the carriage, Kenji Hagiwara, who was staring blankly at a small black screen, was suddenly covered in broken glass. Startled, he turned his head and saw his childhood friend, who should have been sitting on the ground.
The other person, with a dark and gloomy face like a demon, was also covered in shards of glass and was walking towards him.
How did you climb up there? This is a Ferris wheel, not a climbing wall!
"Jinpei?" Hagiwara Kenji couldn't help but reveal his beady eyes, and cold sweat instantly broke out on his back. He picked up the monitor and tried to distract Matsuda Jinpei. "I just noticed that something seems off about this screen."
"Ha." Matsuda Jinpei chuckled and raised his fist high toward the face in front of him.
That punch was delayed far too long.
…
Under the Ferris wheel
Conan stood in front of Vermouth, his bright blue eyes fixed on the blonde woman. She looked at the boy in front of her and nodded her red lips helplessly, "Cool guy, I'm doing this for your own good."
“That’s Curaçao, the organization’s codename member. He has top-notch physical skills and a photographic memory; you could say he’s a human hard drive,” Vermouth explained, looking up.
Curaçao swept past the police officers below the stands like a silver streak, quickly climbed onto the slowly turning Ferris wheel, and headed towards carriage number 35.
It turned out that the woman was a codenamed member of the organization. The boy standing in front of her quickly memorized the codename, and following Vermouth's gaze, he saw Curaçao's illogical route that almost defied the laws of physics.
“Curaçao knows your secret, so I have no choice but to leave her here forever,” the blonde woman said with a sigh. “I didn’t expect you to stop me like that, and I couldn’t succeed.”
Did Curaçao know? But she didn't reveal his identity. Conan was taken aback, and then noticed something unusual from Vermouth's attitude.
Why, why did her shot miss, yet she remains completely unfazed by Curaçao's escape?
"What did you do to the Ferris wheel?" In a flash, Conan realized that the other party must have made two preparations.
"I didn't do it, cool guy." Vermouth smiled and spread her hands. A muffled rumbling sound came from behind the boy as she moved. Conan turned his head sharply and saw thick black smoke billowing from the gaps in the Ferris wheel's hub, rising into the sky with great force.
The screams of the crowd suddenly broke the orderly footsteps. The police maintaining order began to shout to direct the flow of people to evacuate, but everyone's eyes were fixed on the Ferris wheel, which was obviously slowing down.
“Curaçao is Rum’s man. Although it’s inconvenient for him to come here, someone else can take on the task of cleaning up the traitors.” Vermouth slowly put the pistol back into her clothes, and with a gentle rub of her hand on the raised part of the fabric, the marks of the pistol disappeared.
"It's such a pity. Originally, it was only supposed to end with me taking Curaçao alone." The blonde woman seemed to be convinced that Curaçao would die. She quickly withdrew her gaze, turned around, lowered the brim of her hat, and spoke a regretful eulogy in a calm tone.
"Now, I'm afraid everyone on the Ferris wheel will have to die with her."
She didn't intend to do anything like Gin's big stunt that would attract police attention, so after confirming the situation, she followed the tail of the last group of evacuees.
A word of advice carried on the wind to Conan's ears: "Don't mess with that madman, cool guy."
Amidst the thick smoke, the Ferris wheel, which had been spinning, gradually came to a stop, eventually jamming at a certain angle, with the carriages on the disc swaying in mid-air.
Please note that the current path has changed.
"Next waypoint: The final three seconds (incomplete)"
-----------------------
Author's Note: Damn it, the system was delayed when I was posting.
I was stuck there until the next day (I lay down on the spot) (peacefully).
…
Regarding the Junior Detective
I think the Detective Junior is an age that combines heroism, adolescent angst, and idealism.
They were originally a group of kids who might not amount to anything, but they happened to meet Conan and Ai, which created a wonderful team.
True Angels, True Courage
Too
Real bears really cause trouble
The children will get a good spanking when they get off the plane.
…
When I was writing the action scene on the Ferris wheel, I was quite afraid that it would be illogical.
Then I thought of Akai and Touko's passionate fight.
I:…!
Mom no longer has to worry about me writing too much!
(Fujiya’s thumbs up smile jpg.)
…
As I wrote, I realized this place is really lively.
So many people! (jpg)
…
Mwah
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